Animals, Angels, and Monumental Figures Populate A Summer of Sculpture at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Three Sculpture Exhibitions on View Beginning Saturday, June 24

A menagerie of fabulous figures, ranging from herons and hounds to heavenly creatures, will be on view as part of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine’s Summer of Sculpture, with three different exhibitions on display beginning Saturday, June 24 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at 112th Street), Manhattan.

The summer arts exhibition will feature Cathedral Artist in Residence Greg Wyatt’s Peace Fountain and Animals of Freedom; A Blessing of Animals, curated by the National Sculpture Society; and the Art Students League of New York’s Model to Monument Retrospective. All three exhibitions celebrate the artistry of American sculptors and the beauty of the natural world.

The Cathedral’s Art Walls will be home to imagery from Artist in Residence Greg Wyatt’s beloved Peace Fountain, which has attracted visitors from near and far for over 30 years, as well as works by Wyatt’s students. The Art Walls will also include a retrospective exhibition of the Art Students League’s Model to Monument (M2M) program. Now in its seventh year, M2M has provided a diverse, international group of 50 League artists the opportunity to create sculpture for public spaces under Greg Wyatt’s guidance, conducted in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

For the works on view in the Nave, the Cathedral is pleased to partner with the National Sculpture Society on A Blessing of Animals. The juried show of monumental bronze sculptures of animals features the work of 26 contemporary artists, with subjects including graceful birds, friendly giraffes, and stately hogs, each demonstrating the inherent beauty of animal life and the painstaking work of master craftsmen.

About the Exhibition:
Counter-Couture: Handmade Fashion in an American Counterculture celebrates the handmade fashion and style of the 1960s and 1970s. Often referred to as the hippie movement, the Counterculture swept away the conformism of the previous decade and professed an alternative lifestyle whose effects still resonate today. Moved by the rejection of a materialist and consumerist interpretation of the American Dream, Counterculture youths embraced ideals of self-sufficiency and self-expression. Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War protests and the civil rights movements, hippies, flower children, and idealistic young people shunned the cultural standards of their parents, embraced the struggle for racial and gender equality, used drugs to explore altered states of consciousness, and cultivated a renewed dimension of spirituality.

The pursuit of a personal style proved a transcendental tool toward self-realization, enlightenment, and freedom from conventions. Counter-Couture exhibits garments, jewelry, and accessories by American makers who crafted the very reality that they craved, on the margins of society and yet at the center of an epochal shift. The works on display encompass the ethos of members of a generation who fought for change by sewing, embroidering, quilting, patch-working, and tie-dyeing their identity. Putting the handmade at the center of their daily revolution, they embraced and contributed to establishing a craft and folk sensibility in a seminal moment for the development of American Craft.

Counter-Couture: Handmade Fashion in an American Counterculture was organized by Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, Washington, and curated by Guest Curator Michael Cepress. It was secured for the Museum of Arts and Design by William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator Shannon R. Stratton with the support of Assistant Curator Barbara Paris Gifford.

Counter-Couture: Handmade Fashion in an American Counterculture is part of The Art and Craft of Getting Dressed, a series of three exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) this spring that embrace craftsmanship, cultural commentary, and critical thinking in fashion practices—from the couture to the conceptual—across multiple generations. In keeping with the MAD’s dedication to investigating studio “process” in modern and contemporary art and craft, these exhibitions highlight how fashion, as an expanded field of craft, serves as a platform for artists and designers to explore ways of making that champion artistry, expressiveness, and social responsibility—from concept to product.